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Spelling: Students worked on Words to Learn lists by correcting words missed on the last test.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a reading day in Literature Circles; some groups worked on chunking and context clues as reading strategies.

Writing: We talked about writing strong endings that the reader will think about. Stories can end with:

• talking
• action
• a visual detail
• something funny
• a small detail
• something big and splashy
• a surprise.

Students also continued drafting today. Our current piece of writing, a fiction narrative, is due Friday, December 16. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes and to finish drafting. Your student should be finished with their draft by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Math: Students worked on a STAR Math test today. Homework is to practice math for at least 15 minutes using MobyMax Math or Khan Academy.

Here are some Khan Academy topics your students might have missing:

• Divide by 1-digit numbers (no remainders)
• Zeros in the dividend (no remainders)
• Zeros in the quotient (no remainders)
• Divide with remainders
• Basic multi-digit division
• Multi-digit division

Science: We reviewed the activity from yesterday about evaluating clinical trials.

Social Studies: We learned about the Puritans and students worked on digital assessments for Lesson 3.

Notes:

• Tomorrow is a late start day; school starts at 11 am.
• The Pizza Kit order pickup is December 8.
• Have you set a Daily Homework Time for your student? Consider 15 minutes of math, 15 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of something else to make a brain smarter!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View links to all the websites we use in class.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at JupiterGrades.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

Spelling: Today was a preview of upcoming spelling words.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.

Reading: None today due to extra time with science and Eagle Talk.

Writing: Students worked on drafting today.

Our current piece of writing, a fiction narrative, is due Friday, December 16. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes. Your student should be drafting and nearing the end of their story at this point.

Math: Students continued to work on division or other skills today with a guest teacher. Homework is to practice math for at least 15 minutes using MobyMax Math or Khan Academy.

Here are some Khan Academy topics your students might have missing:

• Divide by 1-digit numbers (no remainders)
• Zeros in the dividend (no remainders)
• Zeros in the quotient (no remainders)
• Divide with remainders
• Basic multi-digit division
• Multi-digit division

Science: We evaluated several clinical trials looking for evidence of well-designed experiments. Homework is to finish analysis questions 1-5 on p. 47. I collected students textbooks, but they can use their digital text.

Social Studies: Students finished digital assessments for Lesson 2: English Colonies. We also read about and completed notes about the Pilgrims.

Notes:

• The Pizza Kit order pickup is December 8.
• Have you set a Daily Homework Time for your student? Consider 15 minutes of math, 15 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of something else to make a brain smarter!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View links to all the websites we use in class.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at JupiterGrades.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

Spelling: Today was a spelling and skill test.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.

Reading: Students worked on a STAR Reading test today. We’ll have results next week, but a first look seems to show that our class reading level improved!

Writing: We reviewed the idea of keeping a consistent verb tense in writing, rather than switching between past and present tense.

Students also worked on drafting today. A lot of students had a goal of writing 10-20 lines during class today. That might be something to encourage your student to do at home, too. Looking at home revision histories, sometimes I see students only write one line in a night. Having students set a goal of 10-20 new lines each night would give them a target and help them finish on time.

Our current piece of writing, a fiction narrative, is due Friday, December 16. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes. Your student should be drafting and have at least half a page at this point.

Math: We continued to practice multi-digit division today. Homework is to practice math for at least 15 minutes using MobyMax Math or Khan Academy.

Here are some Khan Academy topics your students might have missing:

• Divide by 1-digit numbers (no remainders)
• Zeros in the dividend (no remainders)
• Zeros in the quotient (no remainders)
• Divide with remainders
• Basic multi-digit division
• Multi-digit division

Our class time to work on these skills is dwindling. It would be great if your student could catch on up any of this at home this weekend and next week.

Science: We started an activity to evaluate sample clinical trials to see if they are designed well. We’ll continue this next week.

Social Studies: Students started digital assessments for Lesson 2: English Colonies. Homework is to finish the Lesson 2 Key Ideas, Got It, and Quiz if not done in class.

Notes:

• The Pizza Kit order pickup is December 8.
• Have you set a Daily Homework Time for your student? Consider 15 minutes of math, 15 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of something else to make a brain smarter!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View links to all the websites we use in class.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at JupiterGrades.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

Spelling: We reviewed irregular verbs today. This will be the skill tested on tomorrow’s spelling test.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a reading skills and AR practice day. We discussed using this time wisely and not fake reading or fake answering. There were several students getting poor scores, and it was discovered that they were spending about 2 seconds per question. Clearly, a student won’t become a better reader if they don’t practice well.

Writing: We talked using a consistent verb tense in writing, rather than switching between past and present tense. Most stories are written in past tense, but a student can write in present tense as long as they are consistent throughout the story.

Students also worked on drafting today. Our current piece of writing, a fiction narrative, is due Friday, December 16. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes. Your student should be drafting at this point.

Math: We practiced multi-digit division today. Homework is to practice math for at least 15 minutes using MobyMax Math or Khan Academy.

Here are some Khan Academy topics your students might have missing:

• Divide by 1-digit numbers (no remainders)
• Zeros in the dividend (no remainders)
• Zeros in the quotient (no remainders)
• Divide with remainders
• Basic multi-digit division
• Multi-digit division

Science: None today due to our reading skills practice time. We actually used this time to discuss a story from CNN Student News about student debt. The story said America has a $108 billion student loan debt problem. Many people pay 10% of their wages for 20 years to pay off the debt.

We did a little math experiment to see what would happen if someone invested that money. We assumed an average monthly wage of $4,000. So if that worker invested $400 a month at 12% return, instead of sending it to pay student loans, and did that for 20 years, a worker would have $387,000. If they did that another 10 years, it’s up to $1.3 million. Still another 10 years…$4 million. All for investing 10% of a paycheck, instead of paying it to student loans. We talked about how students can avoid student loans by starting in 5th grade to make their brains as smart as they can. That happens by using class time for learning, by learning new skills, by completing work, and by doing daily homework time. Smart brains equal college scholarships, and then your student is on their way to being a millionaire!

Social Studies: We read about how Jamestown struggled to survive, having lost 440 people during one winter. But turning tobacco into a cash crop saved their colony, along with the help of Pocahontas.

Notes:

• The Pizza Kit Camp Fundraiser is due tomorrow, December 2.
• Have you set a Daily Homework Time for your student? Consider 15 minutes of math, 15 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of something else to make a brain smarter!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View links to all the websites we use in class.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at JupiterGrades.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.

Spelling: We reviewed the use of apostrophes for contractions, but not for possessive pronouns: they’re/their, it’s/its, you’re/your.

Cursive: Ten cursive sentences, seven or more words each, are due on Fridays.

Reading: Today was a discussion day in Literature Circles.

Writing: We talked focusing on just one main problem for the characters to solve, rather than writing about too many things.

Students also worked on prewriting conferences and continued prewriting for our next piece of writing, another fiction narrative, due Friday, December 16. Homework is to work on writing for at least 15 minutes and to finish prewriting. Your student should be prewriting the plot, characters, and setting at this point.

Math: Students continued to review division skills, focusing on finishing dividing with dividends and quotients that contain a zero, and dividing with remainders. Homework is to practice math for at least 15 minutes using MobyMax Math or Khan Academy.

Students also looked at JupiterGrades to see if they had a missing assignments. Some students had several. We talked about focusing on trying to finish one missing assignment a night. Just one. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is with one small step at a time. If students try to get one missing math assignment finished each night, they will be caught up by next week.

We are about to work on two-digit division, such as 1,354 / 17, so it’s important that students know fourth-grade division before they try to do the larger fifth-grade problems.

Here are some Khan Academy topics your students might have missing:

• Divide by 1-digit numbers (no remainders)
• Zeros in the dividend (no remainders)
• Zeros in the quotient (no remainders)
• Divide with remainders

Science: We reviewed our last experiment from yesterday.

Social Studies: None today due to our reading skills and AR practice time.

Notes:

• The Pizza Kit Camp Fundraiser is due December 2.
• Have you set a Daily Homework Time for your student? Consider 15 minutes of math, 15 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of something else to make a brain smarter!
• Check out our class calendar to stay up-to-date.
• View links to all the websites we use in class.
• View grades, assignments, and attendance at JupiterGrades.

Our Mission:
All students in Room 130 will do their best and get ready for 6th grade.